Two former Parramatta Eels players are accused of harbouring semi-automatic weapons and possessing more than half-a-million dollars in cash after dramatic arrests in Sydney's Centennial Park yesterday.

The PM hopes that his departure will shift the focus to a handful of doubtful Labor MPs, but that will demand a level of political skill that the Coalition never seems able to muster.

As Shakespeare wrote, “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions”. Some of Mr Turnbull’s woes have been self-inflicted, and others seem to be the malicious hand of fate piling one indignity on another.

Security is a government strength and the PM will hope that story gets some traction. But it is a vain hope.

Most people don’t focus that much on politics, and when they do it is usually because something big has attracted their attention.

The big thing now is that a long-neglected section of the constitution is mowing down federal politicians. Most of the casualties have been in government ranks and there is no evidence that the cull is over.

These aren’t just any political scalps – the list includes a deputy prime minister, a cabinet minister and the president of the senate. Mr Alexander was the least important in terms of seniority but second-in-line in the government’s accounting because he holds a precious Lower House seat.

That leaves the Coalition without a majority for the final sitting fortnight of the year. Expect Labor-inspired chaos, with its calculation being that the government wears the blame whenever parliament is unruly.

There is no end in sight. The run to December now includes two by-elections and a Queensland poll.

Legislating same sex marriage will, again, parade the Coalition’s divisions so it will get little credit for its passage and wear a lot of pain in the process.

That threatens to drive more of the government’s conservative base in search of alternatives.

Then there is the possibility that more MPs and Senators might fall at the constitutional hurdle and the by-elections will bleed into the New Year. Marginal seat MPs returning to their seats over Christmas will take the pulse of their communities and start to worry about their own jobs.

There’s every chance 2018 might begin as badly as 2017 ends and with short electoral cycles there isn’t that much time left for the Turnbull Government to start reviving its fortunes.

So, in his darker moments, the PM must wonder what crime he did commit to be condemned to this gulag.